2025 Predictions - Part I

Introducing Scaling the Enterprise - Tips for Enterprise Adoption

Happy 2025 Everyone! Hope everyone had a restful Holiday Break. The first week of January is always fun - a time for new beginnings and emails from sales reps “circling back” about software you’re likely still not going to buy.

This year, I’ve decided to launch a new project called Scaling the Enterprise, a newsletter sharing tips on how startups can get enterprises to adopt new and disruptive technologies.

In my first edition of the year, I’m starting with a list of my 2025 predictions. Enjoy!

2025 Predictions

Part I - Enterprise Tech and AI

1. More Fortune 500 Co’s Report Large Productivity Increases with AI. The Fortune 500 reports massive gains from AI-enabled productivity tools, with gains outpacing past decade averages. Revenue per employee surges by 10%, reinforcing AI’s role in transforming business operations.

2. The IPO Logjam Finally Opens. The success of the ServiceTitan IPO has uncovered strong investor demand for high-growth software, a trend which will continue in 2025. Expect to see several large IPOs starting in Q2 2025, led by likes of Stripe, Databricks, Wiz and others.

3. Early-Stage AI Founders Meet Increased Skepticism. It's not all smooth sailing for seed-stage AI startups in 2025, as issues like customer churn, market saturation, and Big Tech competition emerge. Investors are increasingly cautious of lazy copycat efforts, scrutinizing AI ventures more closely to determine whether founders are building true “Products” or “Features”.

4. AI Data Center Spending Remains White-Hot. Data center buildouts by hyperscalers will surpass even 2024 levels, fueled by AI-driven GPU demands, making companies like xAI and Groq the hottest VC-backed startups of the year. In the public markets, Broadcom and AMD finally start to catch up to NVIDIA.

5. Agentic AI is Slow to be Adopted: Agentic AI indeed comes to the enterprise, though not as fast my VC counterparts predict! By the end of 2025, only 1 in 5 Fortune 500 compaines leverage AI Agents in production, as most take a wait-and-see approach to adopting Silicon Valley’s buzziest trend of the moment.

6. Data & AI Continues to Dominate VC Funding. Mega-rounds continue to dominate headlines, as Databricks recent $10BN Series J fundraise proves to be just the tip of the iceberg. Expect several more $5 billion+ rounds in 2025.

7. AI Voice Models Explode in Popularity. Voice technology becomes the primary interface for humans, with AI speech models offering unmatched accuracy and latency. Voice chats with Chat GPT spread across the industry like wildfire, becoming almost as common as leaving voice memos for friends.

8. VC-Backed Startup Shutdowns Increase. On a sour note, 2025 sees the last of the 2021 market bubble fully realized with markdowns and shutdowns gaining prominence. Cash runway finally runs out for even the highest profile startups, as they exhaust all strategic options after rounds of layoffs, down rounds, CEO changes, and failed M&A processes.

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And finally, one Early Prediction for 2026….

1. The First Lean $100MM ARR Company Arrives. An AI-native product leads the way by producing incredible efficiency with a team of fewer than 20 employees. Sectors such as code generation, AI-enabled commerce, and AI evaluation platforms have the power to create incredibly lean-yet-scalable AI-powered business models.

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Stay tuned for Part II next week on Energy Tech and Data Centers.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is not investment advice and should not be used as such. Investors should do their own due diligence before investing in any securities discussed in this article. While I strive for accuracy, I can’t guarantee the accuracy or reliability of this information. This article is based on my opinions and should be considered as such, not a point of fact. Views expressed in posts and other content linked on this website or posted to social media and other platforms are my own and are not the views of NextEra Energy Investments (NEI) or NextEra Energy (NEE: NYSE).